


The Hollow Gala

by hagthebag



Category: The Hollow (Cartoon)
Genre: Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, everyone gets a happy ending, i m bad w tags bare w me, or Bi, skeet doesnt actually die, skeet is skeet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24101914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hagthebag/pseuds/hagthebag
Summary: Every year, former players of The Hollow come together to celebrate...Well, The Hollow Games! It's a big event for both the company and the players involved, and this year is when Adam, Kai, and Mira finally get their invites as well as Reeve, Skeet, and Vanessa do. Jealous misunderstandings and obliviousness to obvious attempts at flirting end up making the night a little more lively than expected.
Relationships: Adam/Kai (The Hollow), Mira/Vanessa (The Hollow), Reeve/Skeet (The Hollow)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 80





	The Hollow Gala

“WHAT?! You’ve /NEVER/ heard of The Hollow Gala?!”  
Kai exclaimed, a horrified look on his face.

“Mmmm...Nope. Haven’t heard of it.”  
Skeet lightly shrugged his shoulders, an uninterested look on his face as he glanced back down at his phone.

“Dude. /DUDE!/ It’s only—like, the coolest event The Hollow has—other than The Hollow itself! Every year, The Hollow holds a special party where all of the former players come together to meet and greet! They have all sorts of foods, drinks, and don’t even get me /started/ on the music.” Kai leaned back, not even trying to fight back the grin forming on his face. “You know, Gustaf performs every year, I’ve heard it was sick! At least, based off of the live streams and the countless hours I’ve spent analyzing and dreaming about going.”  
The shorter boy rambled. Skeet didn’t really mind when Kai went on rambles, he did it often when they were hanging out. He actually kind of liked it, and Kai probably did too, seeing as he usually had no one to go to to ramble up until he started hanging out with Skeet.

“And this year we finally get to go! We’ve played in The Hollow—so we’re definitely getting invites!”  
Kai added on excitedly, looking like he was about to launch himself from his seat just by how far he was on the edge of it. Skeet wasn’t sure if he had zoned out halfway through Kais ramble, or if he just failed to process anything Kai said overall. Truth be told, Skeet already knew about The Hollow’s Gala. But, it made Skeet content seeing how passionate Kai got over talking about it.

“...Cool bruh.”  
Skeet simply added, still tapping away at his phone screen.

“Hey, c’mon, you jerk!”  
Kai playfully jabbed at his side, causing Skeet to yelp and defensively feel where Kai nudged him.

“I’m just playing with you, dude! Sounds like a lot of fun, surprised I haven’t heard about it sooner.” The blond said as he readjusted his beanie, giving a light grin over to Kai. 

“Of course you wouldn’t, I don’t even think you have a brain underneath that cap.” Kai teased, leaning back into his chair with a smug look on his face. 

“Whatever, bro. I’d prefer not to think, anyways.”  
Skeet replied almost immediately afterwards. He knew that Kai appreciated letting him ramble, he was pretty easy to look through on stuff like that. Awful at hiding how he really felt, even to dumbasses like Skeet! Well, a self proclaimed dumbass, to be specific. 

“What does that even mean? I’m...not gonna question it.” Kai shook his head. “Your team would have probably told you sooner or later, seeing as Reeve and Vanessa are — you know, Reeve and Vanessa.”

“Mhm.” Truth be told, Skeet had no idea what that meant. 

“So, now that you officially know! You gotta make plans! This is the biggest night of all of our lives!” Kai declared, waving his hands out in the air in front of him.  
“Well, at least, for this year’s celebration.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll see what the Reevster and Nessie wanna do.” The blond nodded in agreement, already having talked to both Reeve and Vanessa about the Gala several times these past few days. God, he was starting to feel a little bad for lying to Kai — but it wasn’t with ill intention.

“The Reevster? Nessie?” Kai looked at Skeet, clearly dumbfounded. “Oh—Reeve and Vanessa. Got it.”

“And you thought I was the one without a brain.”

————

Just like always, Mira had stopped by Adams house Monday morning for their weekly pancake breakfast meets, courtesy of Adams mom usually—but today Adam was the one to make them. It was a bit obvious on some of the pancakes — some being a little too overcooked, some under cooked — but, hey! Pancakes were pancakes, right? It didn’t stop the two of them from enjoying their time together, even if Adam was a bit too self critical on his cooking skills. 

“Really, Adam. They’re fine!” Mira sighed, sick of Adam asking her if her pancakes were okay almost every time she took a bite. Adam had given her most of the ‘decent looking’ pancakes on account of his couple of mess ups while making them.

“You sure? I-“

“Yes, yes! I’m sure. God, you sound like my dad…”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Adam laughed. Her dads were pretty good folks, they treated him like a second son. Just like how his parents treated Mira like a daughter. He was always so thankful that his parents were respectful and considerate of the two's friendship.  
“You hear about the Gala coming up?”  
He questioned between mouthfuls of pancakes, trying to move the conversation from his pancake making self esteem.

Mira let out a dramatic groan. “Oh, come on! Of course I have, Kai won’t shut up about it. Did you learn how to cook underneath a rock or something?”

“I’m kidding, Mir. No need to get all defensive.”  
Adam chuckled, a content look spread across his face. /It’s way too easy to get under her skin/, he thought.  
“You know who you’re going with?”

There was a long pause.  
“...Adam. Are you stupid?”

“What?” You could tell Adam was trying to mess with Mira just by the tone of his voice.

“You’re asking me who I’m going with to The Hollow Gala. The Hollow. You know, the game you, Kai, and I teamed up on? The one we won /together?/”  
Mira frowned, unsure on whether or not Adam was joking.

“So?”  
He cut through his pancakes, taking another bite nonchalantly.

“SO? I’m going with you and Kai—/DUH!/”  
Mira sighed,

“Who says I’m going with /you?/”  
Adam teased, leaning forward in his seat challengingly. Maybe he was taking this joke a little too far—or maybe Mira had gotten equally as good at pretending to be offended. 

“Adam. If it weren’t for the laws of this land, I would have slaughtered you.”

“That’s homophobic.”

“Neither of us are straight.”

“Homophobia.”  
Adam huffed, letting himself lean right back into his chair as he stuffed another tiny portion of pancake into his mouth. Eugh, this one was one of the under cooked ones. He hated how wet under cooked pancakes were on the inside. They were like a trap. They looked like normal pancakes, but were secretly mushy and awful! He’d much prefer an overcooked pancake to an undercooked one any day. Adam had nearly forgot he had been talking to Mira while having his dumb inner pancake argument.

“But really, why are you asking? You got a date or something?”  
Mira jokingly asked, though...  
Adam didn’t reply. After his weird self to self debate on pancakes, that certainly must have caught him off guard. In fact, it was as if Mira somehow managed to read into his mind — past the pancakes, at least. 

“Adam?”  
She called out to him, the only answer being the awkward silence surrounding the two of them. 

“/Adam./”  
Still no response. But the silence was enough of an answer for Mira to understand at this point. Mira wasn’t stupid, after all. 

“You’re joking! Who?!”

“I-“  
Adam couldn’t even get a word out before Mira answered her own question.

“Is it /Kai?!/ Did you finally ask Kai out?!”  
She grinned, watching as Adam stumbled on his words. For a dude who was so good with flirting with Kai so openly, it was surprising to see how quickly the tables could turn on him.

“What—huh—how did you—nooo…”  
Adam felt his face grow hot, clearly made embarrassed just by the accusation alone.  
“Am I that obvious?”  
Mira wanted to fucking strangle him for saying that.

“Are you kidding me, Adam? /YES!/ Everyone can see it /BUT/ him!”  
She groaned, dragging her hand down the side of her face.  
“Did you ask him out or what?”

“I mean—no, not yet, but…”  
Adam trailed off, looking for the right words to say. He was silent for a few good moments. It was like you could feel the embarrassment radiating off of him. The vibes were incredibly atrocious.  
“I was going to use the Gala to ask him out, like, formally. I thought it’d be a good time to...You know… Ask. I just want to make Kai’s night as special as it can be, but I also don’t want to ruin it. You know?”  
Neither of the two said a word for a solid minute, letting the awkward tension of the air build up. Adam had definitely said too much on the matter. He felt like it was cheesy as hell. Which...yeah. It definitely was. But could you blame him?!

“Well…” Mira trailed off, letting the silence fill up the room again. She did end up finishing her sentence though…  
“What’s the game plan?”

————

The day of the Gala finally came. The kids, of course, had received their invites a week in advance. The invitation they sent in the mail felt more like it was for a 10 year olds birthday than a luxurious party celebrating those who had played The Hollow. The photo they used on the invite was one of Weirdy. The in-game version, at least. Actually, thinking about it more? It looked like a cheap valentines day card with an iconic character mascot on it to get little kids to buy it. The Hollow Games /really/ needed some better graphic designers.

————

“Stupid—this is all stupid. Pull yourself together, man.”  
Reeve shook his head as he paced around his room, fiddling with the sleeves of his tuxedo coat. He had to leave soon — but he didn’t know if he was ready or not. He was all dressed up nicely, so check mark for that there—But, mentally? He wasn’t sure. He had been trying to keep a cap on his temper, but surrounded by loud noise and a bunch of people reminding him that he had /lost?/  
The people who he had lost too only made it sting a little more — even though he had made up with Adam and Mira after the events of The Hollow, it was still hard for him to forget everything that happened. They were lucky enough to even somehow get out of The Hollow Sim alive — even when Skeet didn’t.  
He couldn’t remember how it fully went down, but the others had told him that when Reeve saw Skeet again that he had ‘flung himself’ and that it ‘looked like that scene from the Madagascar movie minus the running away’. That last part was from Kai. He didn’t really understand what the fuck he was talking about, but it didn’t really matter much to him. He would have guessed the others would have done the same thing Reeve had done then—  
… Even if they had all reunited at the same time.  
To be fair, Mira did join in the hug pretty quickly too, even though Reeve thought it’d have been better if she didn’t—because everyone followed after her. Reeve wasn’t much of a touchy-feely-huggy person to begin with. Nor did Skeet know why a group hug was suddenly initiated, or why Vanessa had started crying, or why he was suddenly being told how much everyone had missed him.  
It seemed like Skeet was the only one to not have remembered what had happened during The Hollow Sim, but the rest of them did. They hadn’t said a word about it to one another, though. It was a touchy subject that none of them seemed ready to come back to.  
If anything, Reeve had been more surprised that Weirdy—Err… /Gustaf/ hadn’t been fired. Seriously, that man really could get away with anything. It truly wasn’t The Hollow without him.

Reeve had snapped out of it once his phone buzzed. A text from Skeet in their group chat:

𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓫𝓼 💅

Bernard Sandman  
‘hey dude where tf r u’

.What?  
He checked the time.  
3:24 pm.  
SHIT! FUCK! SHITFUCK!  
HE WAS SUPPOSED TO LEAVE AT 3!  
He looked towards the clock on his desk, realizing that the times didn’t match up. GOD DAMNIT!  
He panicked, putting his phone into his coat pocket before looking into the mirror, running a hand through his dreads before dashing out of his room. 

Reeve ran so fast down the stairs it could have probably looked like he was the one who had super speed. He grabbed his keys off of the counter on his way, only managing to call out,  
“BYE!”  
-before the door slammed behind him. His family would probably understand that he was in a rush, yeah? No time to say goodbye to his little sisters when no one had even tried to see if Reeve had left on time. Whatever, nothing he could do besides do a carpool speed run! He hopped into his car, quickly starting it up as he yanked his phone from his pocket and shot Skeet and Vanessa a quick text in their group chat: 

𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓫𝓼 💅

Reeve  
‘MY CLOCK SHWOEKD THE WRING TIME IM ON MY WAY FUCK’

He knew his message had been sent when he heard the reassuring ‘ding!’ that followed after. He set his phone hastily into his cup holder, going to put on his seatbelt only for it to jam.

“Oh, come the fuck on!”  
He cursed through clenched teeth, sighing as he had to pull at his seatbelt a couple of times for it to finally work. He hated that his car’s seat belt did that—especially when it was only the driver's seat. He really needed to get it checked, it only made his patience thin out even more whenever he had a full car.

Of course he’d be the designated driver for his friends, out of him, Skeet, Vanessa, and the Winning Team, he was the only one with their drivers license. It was good for bragging rights up until he kept getting texts from Skeet to take him to McDonalds at 3 in the morning. He still went out of his way to get Skeet his filling of ‘The Good McNumgies’ as he called it, but not without complaining the entire drive there. It was all empty complaints anyways, he was never truly mad to spend time with the other.

Reeve went to pick up Skeet first, seeing as his house was a little closer to his than Vanessa’s. Besides, Skeet always got dibs on the front passenger seat. For starters, he was the tallest, so him sitting in the back was always awkward for the rest of them seeing how tall he was. Two, Reeve was probably the most comfortable with Skeet nowadays. How wouldn’t you be able to feel comfortable around him? He looks like the word ‘relaxed’. Well, maybe more so ‘stoner’, but still! Mira called him ‘friend shaped’ once though, and even though Reeve didn’t fully understand what she meant, it...just made sense. 

He pulled up to Skeets home, seeing Skeet leaning against the wall that was attached to the stairs of his apartment complex. Skeet immediately perked up when he saw Reeve pulling in, waving him over as he bounded towards the front seat. It didn’t take him long to get situated in the car. He didn’t even need to pull the seat back, since Skeet sat in the front so often Reeve had just grown used to it being pushed a little farther back usually.

“Hey, Dude! What took you so long?”  
Skeet greeted, putting on his seatbelt with a small ‘click’ following afterwards.

“I texted the group chat about what happened! My stupid fucking clock didn’t show the right time, that’s all!” Reeve responded, frustration clearly present in his voice.

“Yeah, I know! But it feels weird not to ask when someone’s late.” Skeet responded, letting himself sink into his seat, his arm resting on the glove box between their seats. Reeve felt Skeet's elbow brush against his for a moment, which caused him to instinctively lean his body away.  
“Geez, no need to be so flinchy.”  
Skeet commented, taking off his beanie for a moment to run a hand through his just recently brushed hair.  
Wait...His beanie?

“Oh, come on man, you seriously didn’t bring your beanie, did you?” Reeve sighed, looking at Skeet and seeing the beanie sitting right back on his head.

“Of course I did, man! It completes the fit!”  
The blond replied, gesturing down to his so-called ‘fit’. It was a simple white button up long sleeved shirt with some baggy dark red dress pants. He had a green bow tie to go with the shirt. Next to Reeve, he kind of looked a little...underdressed? It didn’t really matter though, certainly there had to be someone more overdressed than Reeve was in his tux. Besides, Skeet didn’t look that bad in the outfit he chose.

“Okay, whatever. Let’s just—Is your outfit dress coded like your outfit from when we played The Hollow.”  
Reeve cut himself off. It wasn’t even formatted like a question, he already knew the answer before he got a response. You could hear the disappointment in Reeves' voice.

“Sure is!” Reeve didn’t even need to look at Skeet to see the stupid grin on his face. He could picture it in his head just fine—he was used to imagining it when Skeet wasn’t around. 

“I hate you so fucking much.”  
Reeve groaned before finally leaving Skeets neighborhood to go and grab Vanessa. 

Vanessa’s house wasn’t in the best neighborhood in town, but it didn’t really matter to Reeve or Skeet, even when Reeve got texts to come pick her up at any given time — it was different from Skeets ‘Late Night McDonalds Adventures’. 

Skeet was the one texting Vanessa while Reeve was driving:

𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓫𝓼 💅

Skeet Skeet  
‘hey boo grilled reeves and I r almost there’

Nessie  
‘Ok. See u soon’

Skeet Skeet  
‘periodt luv’

Nessie  
‘Stop.’

Skeet Skeet  
‘never’  
‘🤪’

Once the two of them arrived at Vanessa’s, Reeve parked across the street from her house as Skeet texted Vanessa that they had arrived. It gave Reeve a chance to check his phone, seeing the dumb nickname Skeet had called him.

“Grilled Reeves? Seriously dude? You’re getting weak at this.” Reeve rolled his eyes as he exhaled out of his nose sharply.

“I think I’m quite hilarious, actually.”  
Skeet remarked, smirking at Reeve before he nearly jumped out of his skin. Vanessa had gotten into the car without either of them seeing her walk across the street.  
“JEEZ VANNIE! YOU GOTTA WARN US NEXT TIME!”  
He whined, looking back to see her wearing a mid length black dress with black translucent arm sleeves attached. She had faint pink accents to match the pink shade of her hair. She had her makeup done to match—but wore her hair down the same. And Reeve thought he was overdressed... Hey, at least he proved himself right.

“Maybe you guys should show up on time next time.”  
Vanessa responded, clearly annoyed with the two of them. 

“Time next time. Hah. That’s kind of a weird way to phrase it, don’tcha think so, Ree-Ree?” Skeet looked over to Reeve for reassurance. Or to be told the usual ‘Shut the fuck up’. 

“Shut the fuck up.” Right on the money. 

“Will do!”  
Skeet laughed, bringing his arms up to use as a pillow for his head. He had a content smile on his face as Reeve began to drive off. The radio station hadn’t been playing anything good today, nor had it been for the past 3 months of playing the same cheesy songs over and over again. It got annoying to Reeve real fast, so he went to change the channel. What he didn’t expect was for Skeet to offendedly gasp and smack Reeves hand away from the radio.

“Dude! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”  
Reeve hissed through his teeth, clearly pissed off at Skeet. What the hell was Skeets problem all of a sudden?—

“No, bro, what were YOU doing? You nearly changed the station. On Doja Cat. /DOJA CAT!/”  
Skeet did a couple of dramatic hand movements before he folded his arms together and over his chest, pouting at the boy in the driver's seat.

“He’s got a point, Reeve. You don’t just change the station on /Doja Cat./”  
Vanessa chimed in, looking up from her phone just to stare Reeve directly in the eyes through the front view mirror.

“I—What the fuck does that even mean? Nevermind. I’m not gonna question it.” Reeve shook his head, letting out another defeated sigh as he heard Skeet go ‘WOOHOO!’ very loudly in response to getting to listen to his song. It didn’t help that he was right next to him, either.  
...But, Reeve couldn’t help but /not/ be mad at him. 

Vanessa looked back and forth between the two guys in front of her, her fingers no longer tapping at the screen. There was a faint smile on her face as she let out a knowing laugh. Reeve gave her a look from the front view mirror, but didn’t say a word while he drove.  
She looked down at her phone, seeing that someone had sent her a text:

Kai 🔥

Kai 🔥  
‘You sure your plan is going to work? ó_ò

Vanessa  
‘Oh, I know it will.’

Kai 🔥  
‘Okay… Whatever u say…I’m trusting you.’

And with that, Vanessa put her phone down, not saying a word as she leaned her head back against the headrest of the middle seat and closed her eyes. Maybe she could take a quick nap…  
Wait, did Kai use both ‘u’ and ‘you’ in the same message? Vanessa looked back down at her phone to confirm. Dumbass...

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic on this sight!! I haven't written anything in months so bare with me on how sloppy this is aghsfdds. Inspired by the lovely people over on The Hollow discord server!! If you want to talk to me abt The Hollow s2 PLEASE hmu on ig @ hagthebag !!
> 
> any errors will be edited later,, I had to reformat some of this bc m a little stupid ajshdfsd. / / is used to italicize/emphasize!


End file.
